Watching the Detectives

Season 4, Episode 2 of Sherlock, titled “The Lying Detective,” was a massive improvement over this year’s bumpy premiere. And while, once again, the episode had plenty of shocking moments to keep even the most casual viewer on the edge of her seat, writers Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat—ever the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle nerds—also managed to squeeze in a number of references to the old Holmes books, as well as a nod or two towards the future of the series. Before we delve into them, here’s a little message from Mary. Let it warn off potential spoiler-phobes who haven’t seen the episode yet: this isn’t the place for you.

Are they gone? Here we go.

Happy Birthday: The conventional wisdom among die-hard Holmes fans is that the great detective was born on January 6, 1854. That means “The Lying Detective”—which aired on January 8—circled the drain of that fictional birth date. So Watson finally stumbling onto his friend’s birthday, thanks to a text from Irene Adler, seems perfectly timed. Also, hey, Irene Adler’s back! Will she return in the flesh for next week’s finale? Better question, though: Is next week actually the finale?

Number Three: When Culverton Smith gloats that he had found all three of Sherlock’s recording devices, Holmes muses that people often give up after the number three. This has thrown fans into a tizzy. “Rules” like these are rarely meaningless in the world of BBC’s Sherlock. So, is there a hidden fourth element of Sherlock this year—in other words, a secret fourth episode? That feels unlikely. Another theory is that now that three Holmes siblings—Sherlock, Mycroft, and Eurus—have been introduced, the show may actually reveal a fourth one. That sounds downright exhausting. What else could the hidden fourth element be?

A Savile Row: American audiences, understandably, might be tempted to think of Donald Trump when presented with Toby Jones’s monstrous Culverton Smith. A reality star/billionaire gone power mad? Sure, why not. But British audiences were quick to identify Jones as a stand-in for infamous British TV figure Jimmy Savile. Savile was a “children’s entertainer” who allegedly abused children in hospital wards, but was never reportedly brought to justice thanks to protection from his powerful friends in the government and at the BBC. (He was even knighted.) Savile died in 2011. As he mentions in the episode, Jones’s character, of course, is also based on the Chicago serial killer H.H. Holmes.

The character of Culverton Smith (and the inspiration for the episode’s title) comes straight out of the Arthur Conan Doyle story “The Adventure of the Dying Detective.” In it, Sherlock Holmes pretends to be dying in order to trick a villainous poisoner, Culverton Smith, into confessing to a murder. Holmes lies to Watson throughout, because a quick medical examination from his sidekick would have blown the ruse wide open. In the TV version, Holmes actually does push himself to the brink of death in order to both trap Smith and “save” John.

What the Blog? Once again, John’s blog gets a lot of mentions in the episode. This week, the good doctor is perturbed to find out that many of Sherlock’s fans don’t know that Watson is actually writing the online content. As I pointed out in last week’s Easter egg post, the real Web site JohnWatsonBlog.co.uk. now has a disclaimer that reads: “John Watson is no longer updating this blog. For the latest Sherlock content on the BBC go to the Sherlock programme website.” Is something strange afoot on this Web site? Why else would it keep cropping up?

Once More Unto the Breach: Speaking of that very famous Holmes catchphrase—“the game’s afoot”—Benedict Cumberbatch’s version finally said it in this week’s episode. (Previously, he had opted for a modernized “the game is on.”) The “afoot” phrase was actually first written by William Shakespeare to cap a rousing speech in Henry V, and the BBC teased that very play in a promo image for Sherlock Season 4: squint, and you’ll see it floating around Sherlock’s flooded apartment. In “The Lying Detective,” Sherlock recites much of the Henry V speech, which starts with “once more unto the breach.”

That familiar phrase was spelled out in red letters (O-N-C-E M-O-R-E U-N-T-O T-H-E B-R-E-A-C-H) over this week’s closing credits.

Sister, Sister: But, of course, the big reveal of the season was that the hidden Holmes sibling is a sister, not a brother. This is something we really should have guessed, given that mistaking a brother for a sister was a mistake Sherlock made about Harry Watson in the very first episode of Sherlock. And to be fair, some fans did see this coming, based on Mycroft’s stubborn use of gender-neutral references.

The episode itself also kicks off with a bit of foreshadowing. The Holmes sister is in disguise as Watson’s therapist asks him if she reminds John of Sherlock. There’s also the ominous carpet, which looks a good deal like a bloodstain. It spreads, forebodingly, out from her chair out to John’s.

But now that we know that Eurus (more on that in a second) is Sherlock’s evil sister, a bigger question is whether she’s actually Sherlock’s twin. A running joke over three seasons of the show has been the oft-repeated phrase “it’s never twins.” (Think Hugh Laurie’s Dr. House repeating “it’s never lupus.”)

Maybe this time, though, it is twins.

Redbeard: So, why wouldn’t Sherlock recognize his own twin sister? Even in his drugged-out haze? Well, there’s a theory that Eurus was taken away when Sherlock was very young (more on that in a bit) and that, perhaps, he’s repressed all memory of her. That theory is bolstered by the flashback Sherlock does have after his night of wandering and chip eating with his long-lost sibling. We briefly see a young Holmes splashing around with his dog, Redbeard. In Season 3, Mycroft brings up Redbeard to Sherlock (it's also his pressure point, according to Magnussen). Then, the memory Holmes repeats is that Redbeard was put down. Mycroft’s reaction indicates that this is not, in fact, what happened. Did Eurus kill the family dog? Is that what got her sent away?

More evidence to bolster the idea that Eurus and Sherlock grew up separated from each other is her reaction to meeting Holmes. “You're not what I expected,” she says in character as Faith. “You’re nicer . . . nicer than anyone.”

The East Wind: Another piece of supporting evidence to this separation/repression theory lies in the sister’s name. “Eurus,” as she points out to Watson, is the name of East Wind. Back in Season 3, Sherlock told Watson, “Eurus gets us all in the end. It's a story my brother told me when we were kids. Eurus—this terrifying force that lays waste to all in her path. She seeks the unworthy and plucks them from the air.” It might be that this mysterious (killer?) sister became something of a myth/cautionary tale in the Holmes household.

So, where has Eurus been this whole time? The best guess there is that she’s been at a mental institution/high-security facility called “Sherrinford.” Most fans assumed “Sherrinford” was the name of a third Holmes brother, but if you pay close attention to the language Mycroft uses throughout, Sherrinford could easily be a place.

In this week’s episode, he promises Lady Smallwood that Sherrinford is “secure.” Once again, that’s how he might refer to a location—one that was supposed to keep his dangerous sister under lock and key. “Sherrinford” is the clue that Moffat and Gatiss dropped in association with Episode 3, so look for the big reveal then.

Our Mutual Friend: Eurus mentions that a “mutual friend” put her in touch with Culverton Smith. Given that we still need to tie up a few Moriarty loose ends, it’s likely that loose end is the man himself. Equally intriguing is the notion that it was Eurus, not Moriarty, who was the criminal mastermind this whole time. We can be pretty certain, given her hidden note to Sherlock, that Eurus was the one behind the big “Miss Me” message from Moriarty that ended Season 3.

But has she—through Jim—been messing with her brother all along? It’s starting to feel very likely, given how the season is shaping up. A deranged female Holmes as the big bad of the entire series feels suitably dramatic, and actress Sian Brooke has proven herself up to the task.

Smallwood: We should not assume that all the mysteries have been uncovered. For instance: why, do you think, is Lady Smallwood sometimes called Alicia, and sometimes called Elizabeth? One is hardly a nickname for the other. With this character currently poised as the person who could inflict the most damage on Mycroft, I wouldn’t count her out as a potential player in Eurus’s great game.